To Vocalise and be Silent
by Avonlea Inspirations
Summary: The Pevensies' idle chatter can be an interesting thing to listen to. Their silence can be telling. A one-word challenge, two-shot.
1. The Sound

**AN: **Having read some amazing one word challenges, I have decided to put my own spin on it by using simply quotes. If anyone finds it rather confusing, I'll add text. I also intend to make a second part by using simply text.

**Disclaimer:** Not mine.

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**1. Laughter.**

"Do you hear that, Peter?"

"Sounds like a ghost."

"Don't be silly. Ghosts don't exist."

"You never know, Lu. You never know."

**2. Clever.**

"When did you become so smart, Ed?"

"Since you became my brother."

"But I've always been your brother!"

"I know; and I've always been smart."

**3. Satisfaction. **

"How dare you say such things to my sister!"

"Peter, it's alright."

"Alright! Lucy, he impeached your honour!"

"Yes, and that is why _I_ demand satisfaction."

**4. Trust. **

"Try it. You'll love it."

"Edmund, if this is another one of your tricks..."

"Would I lie to you, Peter?"

"Yes."

"Hurt. Very hurt. Take a bite and make it up to me."

"Well, alright...."

"What do you think?"

"It's actually... nice..."

"Maybe next time you'll trust me, then."

"... Maybe..."

**5. Arrow.**

"Edmund... I don't think that that is the traditional way to use an arrow."

"You're not the one with the meat stuck between your teeth, Susan!"

**6. Sacrifice.**

"I made you a bowl of soup, Peter!"

"It looks... delicious, Lucy."

"Drink it. What do you think?"

"It... tastes wonderful. Thank you."

"I'll make you another one!"

"... Thanks..."

**7. Beauty.**

"Susan, what makes you so beautiful?"

"I'm not beautiful, Lucy."

"I think you are. Inside and out."

**8. Glint.**

"Lu-cy, Peter and Susan have been awfully dull lately, don't you think?"

"Yes, they have."

"Do you think they need some livening up?"

"Edmund. You read my mind."

**9. Joyful.**

"I feel like singing!"

"Sing away, Lucy. No one and nothing can hear you, but me."

"But you are everyone and everything to _me_, Peter."

**10. Lullaby.**

"Peter, do you remember the song Mum used to sing?"

"Yes."

"Sing it to me... please?"

"Only for you, Lucy, and you'd better not tell Edmund."

**11. Memory.**

"Peter, do you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"... Our mother?"

"I can't forget her, Edmund."

**12. Forgetfulness. **

"Peter, do you remember _our_ mother?"

"Did we ever have a mother, Edmund?"

"I'm not sure."

**13. Blood.**

"Why, Edmund, must it always be your blood?"

"Because it can't be your blood."

"Stubborn ass."

"I love you, too, Peter."

**14. Rainbow.**

"Look at the rainbow, Edmund!"

"I see it."

"Every rainbow is a smile after rain, I think. They're so beautiful and pure."

"Lucy?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't ever change."

**15. Twirl.**

"Lucy, stop spinning! Your dress is knocking the punch bowl."

"I'm just so happy to be alive, Susan!"

"Then twirl as you please."

**16. Tipsy.**

"Edmund seems awfully cheerful today, doesn't he, Su?

"There's a good explanation for that, Peter."

"Oh, what?"

"The fauns dropped a gallon of wine down the well."

"Oh. No."

**17. Protective.**

"Peter, Edmund, Lucy, I'm getting married!"

"That's wonderful, Susan!"

"Thanks, Lucy; but where did Peter and Edmund go?"

"They went to kil - I mean - _talk_ to the bridegroom."

**18. Lustre.**

"Gah, Peter, put a helmet on."

"But why, Ed?"

"That new shampoo Susan gave you is blinding me."

"Well, not everyone can have such shiny hair."

"I'll preserve your manly dignity, Peter, and pretend you didn't say that."

**19. Niggle. **(1)

"Gah. Hah. Two royal asses riding a bag of bones apiece."

"Ignore the blackbirds, Edmund."

"I'm trying, Peter."

"Blimey, you'd think the wind had changed, their faces are so squished. Ugly babies, they must have been."

"Do you know what I feel like right now, Peter?"

"No, what?"

"Blackbird pie."

"You wouldn't eat a talking bird, Edmund!"

"No --"

"Hah, I'd say they were brought up in a barn and crowned for a lark... but that would be an insult to the larks."

"--- but I've never felt more tempted, Peter."

**20. Clean.**

"Edmund, I've spent half the day hanging these drapes, and you have to splash paint on them!"

"I'm sorry, Susan, but look on the bright side --"

"And what bright side would that be?"

"You have the whole other half of the day to clean it."

"Run, Edmund."

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(1) Based upon my own fiction that blackbirds in Narnia are extremely disrespectful.


	2. The Silence

**AN: **For some reason, this was a great deal easier to write. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Many thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter; you enabled me to start writing this far sooner than I otherwise would have.

**Disclaimer:** Not mine.

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**1. Rumpled.**

As Peter knelt beside his brother's prone form, and felt the soft murmur of a pulse beating beneath the transparent skin, he let out a hitched breath of relief. He paid no heed to his own extensive injuries, to the migraine clouding his perception, or the chaffing feeling of rumpled clothes sticking to dried blood.

For, if Edmund was safe, nothing else mattered. Including his own welfare.

**2. Wonder. **

It took several months for Susan to become accustomed to the magnificence of Cair Paravel. Every graceful arch and polished stone filled her with a sort of wonderment.

**3. Terror.**

It caused the bubbling sounds of laughter to erupt from Edmund's throat when he saw his brother race down the hall with a look of horrified terror etched upon his face.

He was closely followed by the not-so-demure maidens of various courts.

Edmund could sympathise with him several years later, as he was struck with the very same plague.

**4. Brighten.**

Nothing could raise Peter's spirits so much as a smile from Lucy. It was a smile so full of faith, joy, and love, that it seemed to brighten the darkest days.

**5. Journey.**

As Susan looked up at Peter and Edmund from her position on the ground, a prayer echoed from her lips. A prayer to Aslan, to bring her brothers home safe, no matter the journey.

**6. Charm.**

Charming, just charming.

That was how Peter was described.

It would be most beneficial to his health, Edmund decided, if he would turn this charm off once in a while.

Perhaps then he wouldn't be mobbed by enthusiastic women.

**7. Brash.**

Staring at the blood-coated ground, Peter suddenly seemed grim, and haggard, and not at all like himself. He kicked at a tuft of grass in a frustrated motion, before sheathing his sword and returning rather soberly to the rest of his men.

He didn't speak for the rest of the day, but for brief orders and sorrowful mutterings to himself.

Orders to bury the dead. Mutterings about his inexperience and accursed brashness.

It was his second battle.

**8. Tapestry.**

Lucy stared, somewhat dolefully, at the silk skeins in her sister's outstretched hands. She touched it warily, her eyes narrowed, before looking up at her sister in slight disdain.

If Lucy had her way, she would be frolicking around Narnia with the fauns and dryads at this moment.

If Susan had her way, Lucy would be sitting sweetly in the low-ceilinged room for the next two hours, stitching diligently.

Lucy contested stoutly; but, in the end, Susan's tongue seemed to have a life of its own, and waggled on mercilessly. Lucy had no choice but to surrender.

**9. Love.**

At times, a feeling of self-hatred would descend upon a newly crowned Edmund. How could he, traitor that he was, deserve or accept any love?

He had only to see the look in Peter's eyes; to hear the heart in Susan's words; and to feel the warmth in Lucy's embraces to know that, yes, he was being offered love.

And that he could accept it.

**10. Boredom.**

Peter and Susan had quickly learned to grow wary when their younger siblings announced that they felt bored.

This wariness turned to almost paranoid caution, however, after they suffered the effects of a carefully thought-out prank involving a suit of armour, a talking chipmunk, and a bowl of honey.

**11. Curious.**

Sniff.

Touch.

Taste.

Edmund's nose for trouble lived up to its reputation when he disturbed the talking bees. They did not appreciate a pert nose and inquisitive tongue intruding upon their hive, and acted accordingly.

Edmund suffered the effects of several large stings for the next couple of days, but that did not stop him from praising the honey as the best, if most painful, that he had ever tasted.

**12. Etiquette.**

Edmund never could understand the importance of manners at the dinner table. Elbows naturally rested on the nearest perch, soup was meant to be slurped, and chewing vigourously seemed the only means of devouring his meat.

He never understood, that is, until he became King. When he became King, elbows on tables felt awkward, noisy eating was uncouth, and enthusiastic chewing was positively primitive.

Another prime factor, however, was the fact that one pays especial attention to ones manners when a score or so of visiting dignitaries are watching every mouthful.

Edmund felt that he could tell _them_ a thing or two about etiquette.

**13. Time.**

In Narnia, Susan measured time by the rise and fall of the sun, and the good she could do in those hours.

In England, Susan measured time by the lighting of the yellow candles, and the slow beads of wax, which dripped down the side with sluggish accuracy.

England, she realised, was a darker existence.

**14. Heart-beat.**

There were two sounds that Edmund loved more than any other sound in the world.

One was the sound of his sisters' laughter. Lucy's, high and golden; Susan's, soft and silver. They rang out loudly in cheerful times, and leant a gentle courage to Edmund's heart. As long as he could hear their laughter, he decided, no danger was too fearsome, and no enemy was too brutal.

For the owners of those laughs were his world.

The second sound was the steady thrum of Peter's heart. After battle, it was the only sound he wanted to hear; the only sound that would comfort him and drive away the bloody reality of war. He would lie in his hammock, the dull thrumming the only sound echoing in the darkness, and he would smile.

For the owner of that heart was his life.

**15. Quill.**

Peter hated, detested, and utterly despised the old-fashioned invention know as a quill. Loudly would he bemoan the loss of his shiny pen, gone forever in his mind. Quills were messy contraptions, in Peter's hand; and usually left what some people called chicken tracks across the coarse parchment.

Edmund adapted with graceful ease to the use of the devil's instrument (as Peter dubbed it, when Susan was not in hearing range), and would often tease his less fortunate brother with elegant letters where Peter left smudges. A scuffle (born of jealously, Edmund decided) would often erupt after such a display, and both boys would come off looking very much like Dalmatians.

No, Peter never managed to master the quill. He hired several scribes, however, and stuck to dictating, much to Edmund's eternal merriment.

**16. Bitter.**

It became a sort of custom, born of habit, in which Peter and Edmund would give the care of their torn tunics to their gentle sister. Susan, ever the homemaker, would mend their shirts in the confines of her room.

In the dim light of her chambers, no one saw the tears which sparkled on each rent she mended. No one saw her anguished expression. No one realised that each gash tore at her heart.

Each time Peter and Edmund went off to battle, she was a vision of joy and cheerfulness, giving them advice and well-wishes.

But no one noticed the pain in her eyes, the quivering of her nether lip, or the tremor in her voice.

Susan, Gentle Queen, had long since learned to hide her weaknesses.

**17. Watchful.**

Lucy was the darling of Narnia.

A well known fact.

Thus it fell out that her very first suitor, a Duke from Galma, was very closely watched. Every mouthful, Every sneeze, and, of course, every word was noted and passed about by word of mouth.

A decent fellow, was the general consensus, with the potential to become a rat.

The rats resented this.

The Duke was tailed from the top of Cair Paravel to the bottom. He was never left alone with Lucy (much to her secret relief), and if he moved a finger out of line, he was immediately chastised or smacked.

Under such conditions, he left within a week, complaining loudly about the over-protective animals of Narnia.

He didn't realise how lucky he was to escape the protective natures of her two older brothers, who were both away in battle....

He received two, strongly worded letters from Narnia upon their return.

**18. Suitor. (1)**

Susan's grace and beauty had attracted many young men, eager to win her hand. It caused alarm bells to ring off in Peter's head when she chose the most wealthy, and least worthy of them all.

**19. Talent. **

Edmund was one of those annoying people, to whom God-given talents seem amplified, and all struggles seem easy. He was a fair swordsman, could wing a hawk in the time it took for Peter to unhood, and could ride the friskiest horse with careless grace.

Yes, he was gifted....

But he stank at archery.

To Susan, it was as simple as breathing. To Peter, it was an inborn talent that had to be worked at. To Lucy... well, she preferred her dagger and could slit a throat at far-range, when the need arose. But to Edmund, his fingers seemed to grow in girth, making his shots clumsy and his fingering atrocious. He blamed the bow, but his siblings knew the truth.

And teased him with it at the proper intervals.

**20. Air. **

Narnian air was bracing. Very bracing. It was so bracing that it would stir through Lucy's veins in the wee hours of the morning, waking her and giving her an excited enthusiasm for the day.

It was so bracing that it would wake Susan up an hour later than Lucy; and she would attend her daily duties with a thirst born from wild and tangy delight.

It was so bracing that it would wake Peter an hour later than Susan. He would grab his sword with a lusty strength, jump from his low bed, and run pell-mell through the castle with an exuberance for life.

The effects of the air, however, were lost upon a certain Just King, who would lie tangled in his blankets until the late hours of the morning, oblivious to any enthusiasm, delight or exuberance.

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(1) This is referring to Rabadash, and is not my personal belief; rather, an observation on Peter's part.


End file.
